Funko Pops have been a staple of the pop culture community since they were first released in 2010. Since then, it seems like every franchise, character, and sports personality has had the chance to be recreated in plastic, complete with dull black eyes and signature poses. It was only a matter of time before Funko, which recently released an animated special, got its own game, but it seems to be following the Lego brand in terms of penetration into other media.
The first game from 10:10 Studios is now complete. Interestingly, it is made up of the developers of early Lego games from TT Games. Instead of big series like Harry Potter, Marvel, DC, or even Star Wars, 10:10 delved into series from Universal, Netflix, and Mattel. What was supposed to be a huge success for these franchises infused with Funko’s pop style actually turns out to be a complete mess filled with so many bugs that you can’t even finish the game It was. I played it on my PlayStation 5 using performance mode, and while the graphics mode caused frequent crashes, it still wasn’t enough to play properly.
Which world is next?
The game has seven franchised hub worlds, with five stages that serve as the story. These franchises include Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Umbrella Academy, The Thing, Jurassic World, He-Man & the Masters of the Universe, Battlestar Galactica, and Hot Fuzz.
Once you complete each of the five levels of the hub world, you unlock the World Crown and can choose which franchise you want to play next. There are cameo levels within the main world, these are other franchises hidden within specific levels, such as Jaws, The Mummy, Invincible, Back to the Future, to name a few. It includes some pretty strong stuff like Five Nights at Freddy’s. However, don’t expect to get into these easily. Games require specific abilities depending on different franchises before you can access them.
Combat here is fairly simple, each character has some kind of projectile weapon. Some characters have special moves. For example, the character in The Thing has a flamethrower, which he can use to successfully fight off alien creatures. Each character also has a melee weapon that showcases the franchise.
Hot Fuzz’s Danny Butterman hits his enemies with a cornet, Jurassic World’s Velociraptor has a half-eaten chicken leg, and KFC’s infamous Colonel Sanders shoots chicken nuggets at his enemies. For those in the know, it adds even more charm and fan service. Other than that, it’s a fairly standard attack system, and there are various weapons that can be picked up as items from gold chests in-game, but they don’t seem to add much to defeating enemies quickly. is.
Besides shooting enemies and getting keys to exit the level, there are tons of items to collect and discover in each level. If you didn’t feel like buying the KFC Bucket to get the code to unlock Colonel Sanders (I’m not kidding!), find the KFC Bucket in each level to unlock him. Must be collected. Fossils hidden around the levels unlock different characters and perks. Most characters have different appearances, which can be unlocked using Funko Pop dots scattered throughout the levels, similar to studs in Lego games.
every corner
The game also has puzzle elements, but they are minimal and often very basic. The game takes some leaps forward, especially as it tries to make things trickier than it originally was in the Hot Fuzz levels, but overall it’s on a similar basic level to Lego titles. It takes a lot of pops to defeat enemies, which can be very frustrating. Different weapons do more or less no damage, which doesn’t create any innovative gameplay.
The character design reflects the real character. They are beautifully detailed, and the exchanges between franchises and characters are fluid. It’s a shame that the game is full of bugs that affect both frame rate and overall performance during intense combat or when there are too many details on screen.
Unfortunately, this was just the beginning of my problems with this game. One level in Thing required me to restart the level five times before the Funkey spawned at the end. In some levels, the audio does not play during cutscenes and becomes choppy during gameplay. The first level of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe repeats the first encounter and prevents you from progressing. After 8 tries, I decided not to continue and wait for the patch to be applied.
It’s a shame that Funko Fusion was such a flop, but with six more months of development, the team could have worked out some of the game-breaking bugs as of 10:10, and the Nintendo Switch and PS4 versions should have been able to complete it. Allows for larger releases. The fusion of series is great, and it’s great that more horror and adult entertainment can fill this space in the game world.
Hopefully it will improve over time with some patches. Despite its flaws, this game looks great. Each level and hub world is meticulously detailed and specific to the franchise it belongs to. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe has a cool 1980s cartoon aesthetic that fits right in, while Hot Fuzz feels like the small British village that’s featured in the film.
final thoughts
Funko Fusion had the opportunity to be a Lego style game for adults that families could play together. The hub world is great to explore and beautifully detailed, but it’s a shame that all of that is completely lost to game-breaking bugs that make it nearly impossible to play. If you persist, you’ll find yourself having to play the same level over and over again to complete it. Hopefully 10:10 Studios releases some patches in the future that improve this and the game provides the experience we were hoping for.
2 1/2 stars (out of 5 stars)
Highlights: Adult and horror series never before seen in games
Cons: Game-breaking bugs that make it unplayable, repetitive gameplay with no innovation.
Developer: 10:10 Games
Publisher: 10:10 Games
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 (November 2024), Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch (December 2024), Windows PC.
Available: Currently
Review was conducted on PlayStation 5 using a release code provided by the publisher.
